Workshops

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Last weekend I went to Lake Grace which is about 4 hours or so driving south of Perth. We went through here many many years ago on our way to Esperance - I turned off Albany highway and through Wagin - the home of Woolarama and the giant ram. I didn't take any photos on my way down - just thought it best to drive - I took lots of cds and wound the sound up.

What a lovely weekend - 13 wonderful women all very creative and ooh - country hospitality. I put back on one of the kilos I had taken off. I also had a very hospitable host in Tania - thank you - flannelette sheets I have not had on a bed since we left NZ. I also took my pop up shop which was well received.

We played with all sorts of things - at the top is a Qantas serviette - yes I still have plenty to share.

I haven't names for the owners of each piece but it is always amazing to see what people come up with and the beauty of running a workshop is that I learn new things and come home with ideas to try out. Here is aome wonderful weaving (something dear to my creative heart) - I love the colours she has used.

Some more weaving - we played with sari ribbon and flimsies

and tissutex and papers and more weaving - stencils - sprays etc

and we made silk paper and discovered new things we could do with it

different things we could put on it

lovely sari ribbon weaving

prefelt weaving

making some little felt

more weaving

this was a very ethereal sheet of silk paper - quite lovely -

and of course we played with paper napkins - why not?

paper napkins and stencils and sprays

silk paper with extras

silk rods - wonderful effect

paper napkins

using the gelli plate

paper napkins and silk paper

I had never thought to weave through paper napkins - wonderful

an eclectic collection

weaving and image transferring

playing with the gelli plate

weaving and adding

paper napkins plus

weaving and starting on a Romeo grid

more Gelli plate fun

As you can see they were pretty productive. I drove back on Sunday night in time for a glass of wine but not dinner - never mind I had eaten far more than I should have over the weekend. Thank you so much to the lovely Lake Grace and surrounding - ladies for a wonderful weekend.

This week we have been working on the e-mag - Issue 5 is getting closer - it has been raining a lot and quite cold - I watched the replay of the All Blacks versus England game and am looking forward to today's game. And i am putting my stuff away - gathering my stuff for my trip to Rockhampton next Friday where I am so lucky to have been asked to be a guest artist - I shall be playing away on an embellisher and with my flower stitcher. I have also purchased a new suitcase extra so I am bringing two suitcases - not sure what to take as yet!

I also want to thank Felicity from Norseman who sent me some fab Japanese papers for my upcoming project. You didn't give me your address so I could send you some threads!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I have had three wonderful people
testing the thermo felt for me and I have been playing with it as well. So much
potential for experimenting for shapes and moulding - hope you enjoy reading
what we have all done.

Thermo
Felt

Thermoformable wool felt is made from wool and polyester (90% wool-10%
polyester). It can be used as a wonderful felt for backgrounds and stitching
but it contains enough polyester to enable it to be moldable. Thermo Felt can be permanently
shaped and creased under heat. It will retain the
shape you create before you apply heat. You can stitch it and shape it first
and then apply the heat. This is a very new fabric for those of us who just
love to experiment. The possibilities of 3D is exciting.
Comes in large 50cm x 50cm squares (fat quarter) 2mm thick

Before
you do anything else – soak it in boiling water first to open up the fibres. It
makes it nice and soft if you plan to stitch on it and it has that wonderful
sheepy smell. Let it dry and then shape and/or stitch as desired.

Don’t
expose the felt to an open flame and be very careful when handling the felt
when it is hot.

Pleating

Try
pleating or creasing the Thermo Felt. Fold the fabric concertina style (or tuck
into a ready made pleater) and with the folds pointing vertically, press a
steam iron over the top, flip it over and heat the other side. Make sure you
use lots of steam. I have quite a powerful steam iron.

Try
stitching lines first before you steam.

Shibori

Cate
Whitehead tested it and says

I have done some playing so far - with steam. I used the method I've
been using mostly for my shibori-ied scarves, knowing that the polyester
content should respond to steam.

I've also tried shaping little offcuts with steam and tentatively tried
the microwave. It's a really interesting material isn't it? Lots of fun and I
think I like the sculptural possibilities the most.

I use good old rubber bands and steamed them for 10 minutes. I use glass
mosaic beads (the flat-bottomed ones - they're just the ticket)

You can
also try immersing the whole piece in some boiling water

Moulding

Helen Beaven tested it and says

The purple and black are Merino/Alpaca/Silk blends that I machine
needlefelted. The orange is hand-dyed muslin strips.

There didn't seem to be any change in colour (or burning) after 20
minutes in the oven. I used ceramic baking beans to help weigh it down.

Even before the cooking, the felt was holding the shape of the container
quite well.

Felt dyed
with ink and fabric paint sandwiched between silk satin and silk organza from
the same dye bath, Stitched with silk thread. Cooked in the oven for 20 minutes

Machine
needlefelted with cotton scrim, silk and wool fibres and silk organza. Formed
then stitched with silk thread. Cooked in the oven for 20 minutes

Felt
slashed with craft knife, then layered with silk and synthetic organza.
Overlaid with tuile and machined. Burnt back with heat gun and cooked in the
oven for 20 minutes. Rubbed with Shiva Paintstiks.

OR – You
can simply use it as a felt – wonderful for working on

Remember
– play and experiment because there will be lots more to discover

I must have spent most of yesterday trying to load my blog so I am
subtle testing today - I may move off to my word press blog which I set
up ages ago in case......

for testing, these are what I am enjoying doing at the moment - cutting and weaving hand dyed Flimsies (pre-felts) and lots of running stitch - for beautiful backgrounds waiting for things to happen on top - or leave as is.... This is using Poppy

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About Me

I am a textile artist and owner of The Thread Studio. I am passionate about all areas of textile art and try to be as cutting edge as I can. I enjoy machine and hand stitching, developing ideas using a needle felting machine and playing and experimenting with all manner of textiley and mixed media stuff. I guess I am an art journaller of a different variety before the title became trendy but my journals are more the stitchy variety than the paper types. I have been a teacher for many years and run a number of on-line and in the flesh workshops. I have written a book on using a needlefelting machine 'Surface Tension' and four Let's Play booklets. I have been published in many magazines around the world. Our new e-mag threads.In-fusion was launched in June 2013 with a fabulous response - Issue1 - 12 are available for you to buy. And I am a passionate All Black supporter - some would call that a tragedy.....and what a wonderful win for the All Blacks at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. 2016 my beloved Hurricanes have finally won their first Super Rugby Championship
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